Let’s pray MPs do not fight over the ‘removal’ of Adwoa Safo – ACEPA Boss

Executive Director of the African Centre for Parliamentary Affairs (ACEPA), Dr. Rasheed Draman, has said that the upcoming deliberation in Parliament meant to make a determination over the status of the Dome-Kwabenya seat might turn chaotic.

Dr. Draman said that information he has indicates that both the Majority and Minority caucuses have taken entrenched positions on the seat currently held

Read full articleby Sarah Adwoa Safo of the New Patriotic Party, NPP.

The Majority are supporting her removal and the minority are against it.

He added that if the Speaker of Parliament, Alban Bagbin, is not available and any of his deputies who presides insists on taking part in the vote, there will be a mess in Parliament just like happened during the passage of the Electronic Transfer Levy (E-Levy), onuaonline.com reports.

“There is a lot at stake here. My understanding from visiting the House is that one of the MPs is critically ill, so assuming that the person is still attending to treatment and is not in Parliament, it means that together with Hon. Adwoa Safo’s absence, the NPP has 136 then NDC side, currently, there is an injunction in Assin North, that brings their number to 136.

“Which means, we have a real, real hung Parliament. So that if you even need a simple majority and the NDC side says look none of them is going to support a motion to remove her, support the report of the Privileges Committee, then the NPP loses the vote. Because 136, 136 and you need a simple majority, you need 1 or 2 from the NDC.

“Assuming the Right Hon. Speaker is absent on that day, it becomes a disadvantage to the NPP. Let’s pray we don’t have a fight. Like we have seen in previous circumstances,” he said.

Meanwhile, a member of the Privileges Committee and Akwatia MP, Henry Boakye-Yiadom, in an interview with Citi TV, said that the committee by a 15 -12 majority decision ruled that Assin Central MP Kennedy Agyapong and Ayawaso Central MP Henry Quartey’s reasons for absenting themselves without permission were good enough and thus they should not lose their seats.

He added that the committee failed to decide on Adwoa Safo because she failed to appear before the committee to explain why she has absented herself from the House since December 2021. He added that the decision on Adwo Safo has been left to the plenary.

However, unconfirmed reports indicate that the majority members of the Privileges Committee of Parliament recommended that Adwoa Safo should be removed in the committee's report submitted to the House.

Speaker of Parliament, Alban Sumana Kingsford Bagbin, referred the three New Patriotic Party MPs to the Privileges Committee of the House after he was petitioned by former MP, Ras Mubarak, to remove the MPs for absenting themselves for more than 15 consecutive sittings during the first Session of the 8th Parliament.

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IB/SARA